WHAT PRICE DEVELOPMENT?

Increasingly when it comes to development, whether for natural resources (and I include minerals and food produce here) or sustainable energy developments (in Wales, across Europe and around the world) there is an increasing problem of finding the right balance between economic development, the environment, job creation and the impact of development on the local community. In Europe, the problem is as real in the East as it is in the West as it is anywhere else in the world. Romania, an EU member, is one of the Europe’s poorest nations and has high unemployment, yet, is rich in natural resources.

Rosia Montana Gold Mine (Transylvania, Romania)

The case of the town of Rosia Montana (in Transylvania) which has high unemployment yet sits in and on rich mineral deposits of gold. In the communist era the town’s inhabitants paid a high price for with environmental pollution. Now local authorities (and many local people) are desperate for jobs and have understandably jumped at the prospect of investment from foreign investors who want to re-open the town's communist-era gold mine which appears to be a much needed lifeline.

Rosia Montana Gold Corporation (RMGC) the company behind the project, which was first mooted back in the mid-1990s, says that the new mine could benefit the Romanian economy to the tune of $19bn (£12bn) and create thousands of jobs in the process. The proposed mining project by the Canadian company Eldorado Gold Corporation through the Deva Gold Company at Certej, Hunedoara County, has just received the environmental permit from the Regional Environmental Protection Agency of Timisoara.

Not everyone thinks that this proposed development is a good thing, local activists and some residents are seriously concerned about the reopening of the old mine and the use of cyanide in ore processing. They may have a point, especially after leaks of toxic chemicals used in mining processes at Baia Mare (in Romania) in 2000 and more recently in neighbouring Hungry, had a massive impact on local people and the wider environment.

The proposed development aside will destroy some key archaeological sites, where there is archaeological and metallurgical evidence of gold mining from the classical period. Alburnus Maior was founded by the Romans during the rule of Trajan as a mining town, with Illyrian colonists from South Dalmatia. The earliest reference to the town is on a wax tablet dated 6 February AD 131. Archaeologists have discovered houses, necropolises, mine galleries, mining tools, 25 wax tablets and many inscriptions in Greek and Latin, centred around Carpeni Hill much of which will be destroyed if the mining project goes ahead. .

Whether we are talking about communities in the developed world or the developing world the bottom line has to be that that local people should have a significant say or even control over the development process and any community should benefit from the exploitation of local resources. Too many times (here in Wales and elsewhere) we have seen that promises of jobs have not been fulfilled and too many local communities have been left with a toxic environmental legacy and scant long term benefits.

PEAK WHAT?

Over recent years there has been much talk of peak this and peak that, one thing that may have slipped by is the possibility that we may be less than 30 years away from reaching peak Phosphorus. So what people might say, what's that to do with me... a lot is the answer.

As the population of our planet comes close to the 8 billion mark around 2025 (9 billion by 2050) the struggle to feed everyone is going to become more intense. Food itself is only one aspect of what is going to become (if it is not already) an increasingly complicated problem.

So far, largely out of sight and out of mind, a quiet struggle is going on to secure control of the worlds phosphorous reserves. While some countries such as India are entirely dependent upon imported phosphorous supplies all of us in the first world and elsewhere have become very dependent on relatively cheap fertilizers of which phosphorus is a vital component.

At the moment it takes around one tonne of phosphate to produce around 130 tonnes of grain. Not to mention that around 170 million tonnes of phosphate are mined every year (in 2011 (so far)) and the fact that there has been a 30 percent increase in the mining of phosphate. Geologically it is estimated that there are around 65 billion tonnes of phosphate rocks on the planet, but only around 16 billion tonnes of which can be mined economically.

Now obviously the word 'economically' is a variable and market price, demand, desperation and hunger will all have impact on the mining process so the margins will change. Interestingly enough 80% of the planets reserves can be found in Morocco and much oppressed Western Sahara.

In 2009, there was a 14.2% increase in the amount of phosphate fertiliser produced in the Peoples Republic of China - 15.8 million tonnes. The PRC itself may have phosphate reserves of around 18 billion tonnes. The PRC Government has added phosphorus to a list of around 20 minerals that China will be unable to source from inside China in anticipation of economic demand in the next 20 years.

One major problem that we all face from increased use of phosphate based or phosphate rich fertilizers is run-off. It has been estimated that around 37 million tonnes of phosphorus is leaked into the environment every year, washed into rivers, lakes and the oceans helping to fuel toxic algae and bacteria.

Food security is going to become a key issue in the first fifty years of this century along with energy security. Gradually weaning ourselves of phosphate and chemically based fertilizers might be the wise course. Not to mention significantly investing in plant breeding stations to tailor crops on a non genetic level to make best use of our soils, but, of course that would get in the way of profits.